Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-09-21
REIGN OF THE CORSET.
1t Came In With Ancient Mythology and
Still Maintains Its Sway.

Jean jacques Rousseau, with all the
power of his genius and all the warmth
OF the interest which he took in youth,
exposed the lamentable corruption of
taste which asserts that the figure is
excellent in proportion to the waist.
The philosopher of Geneva exercised
more social influence, perhaps, III his
time than any writer in Europe, and
for while stays went out of fashion in
France Stiff corsets were still worn
by the ladies of the old court; but sem
sible mothers came to common agree
ment that their daughters should SUBJ
ject themselves to this voluntary pun
isnment at as late period as possible,
and not until their wedding day were
they allowed to wear stays.
The revolution swept away the corset
altogether, as well as hoop petticoats,
but stays again made their appear
ance toward the end of the First EN-
pire. A very harmless affair. scarcely
broader than the 'fascie mamillares"
of the Romans was the imperial
bodice; for waists were then worn ex-
cessively short, and the stays were
without busks, stiff pieces of whale
bone or steel plates. Modified, how
ever, as they were, the strong common
sense of Napoleon revolted against the
reintroduction of the garment. Cor
visart," said the ruler, whose business
it was to know every thing, to his
physician, 1.-The corset is coquetry of
the worst taste; it fortunes women and
maltreats their progeny; it means friv-
olity; it heralds decadence."
On the authority of the most eminent
physicians and surgeons of the last two
generations it may be stated that in
the head tight lacing produces giddi-
ness, headache, pain in the eyes, ring
ing in the ears, and bleeding at the
nose. Habitual tight lacing will pro-
woke that most undesirable addition to
the female complexion-a red nose
Tight lacing is quite as mischievous in
the region of the thorax, to which it
gives false support, impeding the de-
velopment of the natural support 1t
displaces the bones, deranges the cir
culaliOn, induces scirrhus in the man.
mary glands, and ultimately cancer;
and it is a tolerably sure provocation
of lung disease, palpitation of the
heart, and water in the chest In the
abdominal region tight lacing may be
reckoned upon with tolerabe con-
fidence to bring about loss of
appetite, circumstances. indigestion,
induration of the liver, melan-
cholia. dropsy, and rupture. Campin
closely associated tight lacing with
squirting; Bonnaud said that it led to
polypus; Platner maintained that to
tight-lacing mothers unhealthy chill
dren were born; Joseph warned the
lovers of stiff corsets that their chill
dren would be ugly; Wormes remarked
that one of the trifing Inconvenience
of tight-lacing was swollen feet; and
Winslow showed that there was an in
innate connection between tight-lac-
ing, curvature of the spine, and hunch-
back.
Every scholar is aware that stays
are articles of attire of the very high
est antiquity, and that cestus of Agale
was practically a corset. Some an
tiquarians have ever contended that
the gridle which Juno wore when she
wished to appear her loveliest in the
eyes of Jupiter was a pair of stays.
The Empress Messalina was wont to
have her body cravat adjusted
very tightly before she proceeded
to pass happy evening in the suburb,
while in the reign of Augustus an i'm
proved corset was introduced called
''castula;' it fitted closely to the form,
and had the agreeable addition of
dress improver
The ladies stays of the Middle Ages
were known as 'justaucorps, and
subsequently, as 'cotteshardies;" but
Isabeau de Baviere, the consort OF
Charles VI of France, totally repudiat.
ed stays, and, besides, laid it down as
a sumptuary canon that there should
be as little1drapery as possible between
the necklace and the lace. When the
Italian Catherine brought in the
execrabe Dusk, which was first of wood
or of ivory, the corset successfully
developed in rigidity and obduracy. It
became cage, it became a cuirass,
and it had to be so tightly laced that,
the muscular power of the ordinary
'femme de chambre" being inadequate
to the pulley-hauling required, the
court ladies used to send for the
strongest of the Forts de la Halle to
tug at their stay-laces, and even these
athletic creatures could not accomplish
their task to the entire satisfaction of
their fashionable employers without
pressing one foot firmly against the
bedpost in order to obtain the neces-
sary purchase of leverage. The cor
sets of the present day, whether they
be machine-made OF hand-fashioned
from the accurate measurement of the
customer, invariably present the same
general characteristics of fastening in
front and profusely boned at the sides;
while at the back there is that disas-
irons interStico with itS narmanent